The BookThere are now over 112 numbers in the book spanning the entire gamut of big band repertoire from Benny Carter to Benny Goodman to Bob Mintzer and Wayne Shorter. The latest is a Johnny Richards arrangement of the West Side Story classic - "Tonight". Eli has just written 13 original charts of music by "The High Windows", arranged for jazz ensemble. | A big band marches on its book - the Goodman bands owed a good deal of their success to a well-maintained library. We got our first three charts courtesy of the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. Incredibly that's all we found. There were rumors that the head of the Jazz department there keeps all the charts in his office... Whatever. We started with Dat Dere (written by Bobby Timmons and arranged by Sammy Nestico), Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Duke Ellington) and Emancipation Blues (a shuffle written and arranged by Oliver Nelson). The book is maintained by a volunteer, part-time librarian - Ofra, who runs the rare book collection at the Israel National Library. Kudos to Ofra for yeoman duty. Now - if we could only get the trumpet players to stop losing their parts.... |